


Hunger

by DistractedDream



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Deathshipping, Halloween, Hansel & Gretel - Freeform, Implied Cannibalism, M/M, but it's still heavily implied, fairytale, nothing gory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 17:02:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12586544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DistractedDream/pseuds/DistractedDream
Summary: Lost in the woods, Ryou finds his dream house with a nightmare inside. Hansel & Gretel parody.





	Hunger

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE READ THE TAGS. There is nothing gory at all, but the witch in Hansel & Gretel does try to eat them and this is a parody, so...
> 
> Thank you, SerenityXStar, for betaing! Read the notes at the end as well please.
> 
> I can be found on Twitter @DistracteDream and on Tumblr @DistractedDream. Please leave kudos or comments if you liked this! I appreciate every single one.

Ryou loved going into the woods with his father. Each walk was its own adventure, always something new to find, new logs to scramble over, new puddles to splash in, new animals to watch. It was possibly his most favorite thing, other than dessert. Today though, his father seemed distracted, mumbling to himself as they went. Ryou wasn't much surprised when his father told him to stay put on the edge of a clearing and he settled down for a quick nap after eating his lunch.

A blast of cold wind finally awoke him - to find himself alone in the dark in the woods.

"Father? Father!" Ryou called and shivered and called some more before starting to trudge in the direction he thought his father had gone. The moonlight filtered through the trees but not enough for Ryou to get his bearings, wandering farther and farther into the woods. It was nearly dawn when he finally saw a building between the trees, rushing towards it.

Before him sat a cottage covered in marzipan, cookies and cakes, peppermint sticks, spun sugar and rock candy, chocolates and vanilla and topped with a creampuff chimney. Ryou's mouth watered and his stomach rumbled. If this was a real house and not a delusion, which Ryou wasn't sure of, certainly they wouldn't mind if a starving lost teen took a few small nibbles. Right?

Ryou was climbing up the licorice lattice before he even finished rationalizing it. Perched up on the rooftop, he tore into the creampuff, licking the cream from his fingers with a sigh.

"Well, you're the biggest field mouse I've ever had to chase off my roof."

Ryou froze. He hadn't heard anyone approach, but then he had been rather distracted with the pastry. He cautiously leaned over the edge of the roof to find a tall man with a halo of golden spiked hair around his head. Ryou's heart pounded and he wasn't certain if it was from being captured or from something else.

The man gestured, a great purple cloak swirling behind him with the movement. "Why don't you come down? Morning doves probably shit up there and I've put a kettle on for tea." He grinned a little too sharply. "Unless you prefer bird shit." Ryou didn't try to stop the grin that formed on his face, sliding down the gingerbread shingles and hopping down to the front porch. The stranger huffed as he came around the corner of the house. "At least you have some manners, not to simply barge in." He paused before Ryou and Ryou felt his cheeks color as he looked up at him. The door creaked open beside them, that smile reappearing on the man's face. "Come into my home."

As Ryou's eyes adjusted to the dim light, he was surprised to find the interior looked not unlike his father's home. A fire roared near a small table. Comfortable chairs were arranged around the windows and candelabras, stacks of books and scrolls scattered around. A ladder what seemed to be a kitchen area led to a loft above. For the extravagantly sweet exterior, the inside was disappointingly mundane. Ryou shivered as the man brushed by him, taking two mugs from a cabinet and setting them on the table.

"I'm Ryou," he said for lack of anything else to say. "I'm lost. I was out with my father and I fell asleep and I was hungry and your home is made of treats and I hope I didn't do too much damage to your home."

Purple eyes regarded him as hot water was poured into the mugs, turning to tea the moment it hit the ceramic. "Mariku," he replied, setting the kettle aside and pushing a cup to Ryou. "And I didn't ask."

It was the next morning before Ryou thought to ask how to get home. He'd been fed, shown where to bathe, plied with books and more food, and tucked into one of the chairs next to the fire late into the night. Mariku refused to even give him a direction to head. "My father is probably very worried," Ryou pleaded as another slice of cherry pie was set before him. "If he goes back to where he left me and finds I'm not there, or goes home and it's empty, he's going to wonder."

Mariku huffed, sitting in the other chair at the table. "Eat," he ordered. "I've seen birds that weigh more than you. Your father abandoned you. Whether by design or neglect, he left you." Ryou dropped his fork, staring blankly at his pie. "Eat. I go through all this trouble..." He reached over for the fork, scooping a bite of pie onto it and holding it before Ryou's mouth until he dutifully obeyed and ate the morsel. "Whatever your father was looking for, it's not you. Now clean your plate like a good boy."

It took a week before Ryou stopped crying himself to sleep and another week before he realized that no matter how far he walked into the woods, he always ended up back at the peculiar little cottage. "Why can't I get away from here?" Ryou sat at the table, his plate overflowing with breads and fish and potatoes and cheeses and he poked at it restlessly. Mariku only regarded him from over his own smaller plate until Ryou started eating.

"Don't you like it here? I keep you warm and safe, I bring you books to read, I feed you." Mariku's eyes scanned Ryou's body to where it disappeared under the table. Ryou felt color stain his cheeks. "Or I try to but you don't seem to want to fatten up."

"Maybe if you let me have some of the meat you save for yourself..."

That dark grin stretched over Mariku's features again. "You wouldn't like it."

Day after day, the same dance until Ryou noticed that meat stopped appearing on Mariku's plate and his glances at Ryou became a little more hungry. "Did you stop eating meat?"

"No," Mariku growled, lunging for Ryou.

He bolted, running out the door into the twilight, skidding to a stop with a dismayed noise as he came back to the cottage again before he was even winded. A vise-like grip ensnared his upper arm, hot breath falling against his ear. "I am done toying with you, boy." Mariku dragged Ryou into the cellar, only the dim light from the setting sun illuminating the space. Bones and rats covered the floor and Ryou tried to pull away. "You should be plump and juicy now but you're skin and bones." He poked Ryou's stomach and roared in his face. "I'm hungry!"

Neither was expecting it when Ryou's free hand came up and slapped Mariku viciously across his face. "Then eat something! Eat your house if you're that hungry! Don't feed me so much and eat..." Ryou choked, face paling as his stomach rolled. "Oh Jesus..."

"Too late for that now. That shepherd lost this sweet, succulent lamb when your father walked away from you." Mariku pulled Ryou closer, lifting him to his toes. "So why don't you stay for dinner? The main course is to die for."

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in about 4 hours and it probably reads like it. I left it on a cliffhanger because I didn't want to kill off either Ryou or Mariku. So you get to decide how it ends! Does Ryou die? Does he escape and Mariku dies? Do Bakura and Marik storm in and save the day? (My personal choice!) Does Ryou convert Mariku to vegetarianism? Your choice!
> 
> This might also qualify as the trick part of a trick or treat.


End file.
